KARACHI, May 4: Agriculture production and area under cultivation showed no improvement during the last four years while high prices played a key role in increasing the value of farm produce.
The State Bank’s Statistical Bulletin issued on Friday provided details about agriculture sector performance.
According to the report, improvement was noted only in value of wheat and rice, and prices went up many times during the last five years.
Total value of agriculture produce noted a marvelous jump during the last five years (at current factor cost) as it rose to Rs3,899bn in 2008-09 from Rs2,017bn in 2007-08.
Value of major crops rose to Rs1,191bn from Rs671bn five years back.
Value of livestock went up to Rs2204bn from Rs1051bn.
From the year 2008-09 to 2011-12, area under cultivation for wheat did not see any change. The cultivated area instead reduced during these four years.
Wheat was cultivated in 2008-09 on 9.046m hectares which fell to 8.674m hectares, showing a sizeable cut despite higher increasing consumption of the commodity.
Though yield per hectare improved slightly, overall production of wheat fell from 24.033m tons in 2008-09 to 23.337m tons after four years.
It seems highly disappointing for an agriculture-based country. Industrial sector also depends largely upon agriculture output (like cotton).
The yield per hectare was 2657kg in 2008-09 which slightly improved to 2,690 kg after four years in 2011-12.
The highest production of wheat was noted in 2010-11 when country received record production of 25.214m tonnes.
Similarly, rice, another highly important crop which earns over $2bn through export per year, could not see improvement.
Both the area under cultivation and production fell during the last four years.
Rice was cultivated on 2.963m hectares in 2008-09, but after four years, the area shrank to 2.571m hectares.
Production fell sharply to 6.160m tonnes last year while four years back, production was 6.952m tonnes.
The year 2008-09 was also year of highest production, which could not be achieved in the next four years.
However, yield per hectare improved slightly from 2,346kgs to 2,396kgs after four years.
The best yield was noted in cotton during the last four years which sharply increased production.
However, area under cultivation remained almost the same. The area for cotton cultivation was 2.820m hectares four years back to reach 2.835m hectares last year.
No step was taken to increase production since cotton is a hot item for sale in the international market.
The current production was mostly utilised by local textile industry which may go for expansion if cotton production rises.
Despite no increase in the cultivated area, cotton production rose to 13.595m bales last year while production was 11.819m bales four years back.
The yield per hectare increased to 816kg from 713 kg. The year 2011-12 noted highest production during these four years.Minor crops, like maize and gram, could not see any significant change in area under cultivation while gram production fell one-third of what it was four years back that escalated prices several times.
Production of gram fell to 282,000 tonnes while it was 714,000 tonnes four years back.
Maize did not see big change despite improvement in yield and prices.